Effects of hematocrit and plasma proteins on human blood rheology at low shear rates.

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The viscosity of whole blood, defibrinated blood, and Ringer suspension of cells was determined at shear rates from 52 to 0.01 sec-1. At each shear rate, the viscosity of each system rises as the hematocrit (H) is increased from 0 to 95%. Plasma, serum, and Ringer solution exhibit Newtonian behavior. At 45% H, shear-rate dependence of viscosity is greatest in whole blood and almost absent in Ringer suspensions. The Ringer suspensions depart progressively from Newtonian behavior with increasing H. At 90% H, the viscosity values as well as their shear-rate dependence are nearly equal in all 3 systems. In whole blood, square root of shear stress does not show a linear relation to the square root of shear rate. Data on shear rates down to 0.01 sec-1 indicate that whole blood possesses no yield stress. In whole blood with normal H, non-Newtonian behavior results primarily from cell-protein interactions. As H is raised toward 90%, contributions by direct cell-cell interactions become increasingly more important.

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit: